A judge on Tuesday appeared incredulous that a government body in Oregon fired its Safe Routes to School coordinator for wearing a shirt featuring an iconic Norman Rockwell portrait. The shirt depicted 6-year-old Ruby Bridges walking to a newly integrated school in New Orleans, past a wall sm eared with racist graffiti and the juice of a thrown tomato. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken read word-for-word the state bill that was signed into law last year by Gov. Tina Kotek, which declared Nov. 14 of each year to be Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. Kotek signed the bill into law in June 2025, making Oregon the third state in the country to pass such legislation. “I don’t think there is a better way of defining an issue of public concern as the wearing of that shirt with that iconic photograph,” Aiken said, referring to Rockwell’s famous painting. Aiken read the law after attorney Román Hernández, representing the Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments, admitted that he had not.Hernández represents the public consortium of cities and counties throughout Marion, Polk, and Yamhill counties that fired Beth Schmidt for wearing the shirt. The judge read twice for added emphasis this clause in the law: “Whereas the United States education system has progressed immensely from that November day 65 years ago, but racism still plagues the school experience for students in Oregon and throughout the United States.” The judge then quickly rejected the council’s motion to dismiss Schmidt’s federal lawsuit and said the council’s interim executive director is not entitled to qualified immunity. In January, Schmidt filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the council, alleging it violated her First Amendment rights to free speech and expression. The suit also claims wrongful termination and discrimination. Schmidt, the judge pointed out, had helped create Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day programs across several Oregon counties. Schmidt’s shirt portrayed Rockwell’s iconic 1964 painting, “The Problem We All Live With.” It depicts 6-year-old Ruby Bridges getting escorted by four federal marshals to an integrated school, as ordered by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and includes in the background graffiti of a racist slur reflecting the racism she confronted at the time. Bridges became the first Black child to attend William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans on Nov. 14, 1960, after a federal court ordered the school system to integrate. On Nov. 5, 2025, Schmidt wore the shirt to work. A week later, the council’s interim executive director gave her a letter informing her that her shirt violated the council’s policy on “prohibited harassment.” She said she was told that her job was not in jeopardy and was directed not to wear the shirt to work again, as it could “potentially create a hostile work environment.” She did not wear it to work again. She also was assigned several “training modules” on diversity, equity and inclusion, according to her suit. Yet just three days after the council held a Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day event on Nov. 17, 2025, she was fired. Her boss, McRae Carmichael, the interim executive director of the council, told her that three people had complained about her shirt. The district’s “interest in reducing disruption” to its “working environment” outweighed Schmidt’s free-speech rights, and the shirt violated the council’s policies on “prohibited harassment,” Hernández wrote to the court. But Aiken said she found no evidence of any policy that Schmidt violated, only that Schmidt was fired after three people complained about the shirt, even though Schmidt adhered to the council’s direction and did not wear it again. “The basis for her firing was the fact that she had worn the shirt, and that there was then subsequently allegedly a couple of complaints, but there’s no allegation in the complaint of any operational disruption or material disruption, as the case law requires,” argued attorney Lake James H. Perriguey, representing Schmidt. Aiken said the matter didn’t need much argument and said she’d issue a written ruling soon. The judge urged both sides to consider seeking a settlement. She strongly suggested both sides consider the 2023 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case from Washington state, which she said was on point. In that case, the 9th Circuit sided with a middle school science teacher in the Evergreen School District, ruling that his “Make America Great Again” MAGA baseball cap amounted to a form of political speech protected by the First Amendment. The 9th Circuit conceded that some of the teachers at the Evergreen School District “may have been outraged or offended” by the science teacher’s political expression. But the district failed to show evidence of a “tangible disruption” to school operations necessary to outweigh the teacher’s First Amendment rights, the appeals court ruled. In that case, the district ended up paying $400,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the middle school science teacher following the 9th Circuit’s decision. Perriguey, Schmidt’s lawyer, said he found it “exceptional” that the judge read the entire law during the hearing and called the judge’s stance a “vindication” for Schmidt, “whose reputation was sullied,” unfairly. Since Schmidt was terminated from her $53,720 annual job, she has been unable to find work, her lawyer said. The government council “completely erased Ruby Bridges, the civil rights issues” and fixated on one racist word in an iconic painting, which was directly referenced in the state law and hung in the White House during President Barack Obama’s term, Perriguey said. Schmidt, 51, listened by phone to Tuesday’s hearing. “I had worked for a long time to share this special day, and this walk, and Ruby Bridges and her legacy in life with all the children in Oregon, and so for me I was overcome,” she said. “Finally, I felt the right thing happened for Ruby Bridges.” She said she had worked for the tri-county government council for three and a half years and was stunned when she was fired. “I was so ashamed and embarrassed by what my own employer had done,” Schmidt said. This article was originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive and is reprinted with permission. Contact reporter Maxine Bernstein: [email protected] STORY TIP OR IDEA? Send an email to Salem Reporter’s news team: [email protected]. Make Salem Reporter your trusted source for accurate, independent local news – every day. Stay informed and connected to your community. Subscribe today. The post Judge criticizes firing of Salem school walk coordinator over a Ruby Bridges shirt appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less